


Craig Likes Vanilla ( Ice Cream )

by themuffintitan



Category: South Park
Genre: Angst, Cute flirty scenes i guess, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Ice Cream, M/M, Slides, Water, just a lil but of angst it's mostly fluff, smut but not really??? like?? at all???, there's like mentions of smut i guess, waterparks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 23:02:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5684506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themuffintitan/pseuds/themuffintitan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Craig explains why you should never go swimming at a water park with your friends. Especially if one of those friends happens to be your love interest. Don't do it, he says. Listen to his story, maybe he can convince you. Throughout his day with Clyde, Clyde is acting wayyy differently than he normally would. He isn't doing the expected, "flirting with all the girls wearing bikinis" and making dumb jokes He acts strangely like a gentleman, and Craig pretty convinced Clyde has something up his ass that is making him act funny. Holding his hand, buying him ice cream, you name it, Craig is being treated like a boyfriend. But who says he's smart enough to pick up on it?<br/>holY COW WAS THIS A PUPPY TO WRITE. LIKE JFC I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN SOMETHING SO LONG. This was meant to be a small little oneshot as a joke, but somehow I ended up writing 19k words. That's a huge milestone for me, idk how I'll top that.<br/>Although I'm two months late due to the length of this monster, this fic was for my buddy Loke, who runs the askyandereclyde and clydesjournal blogs! he's pretty hella, and I'm sorry this is so late dude. Happy Birthday you silly meme.<br/>If you've got tumblr go check this nerd out: lokedoodles.tumblr.com</p>
            </blockquote>





	Craig Likes Vanilla ( Ice Cream )

**Author's Note:**

> what am I going to do to top this? how am I supposed to improve now that I've written double that I normally can. i don't care my hands are cramping a bit, just go and read this block of words i call a fanfic.
> 
> fluff guaranteed *enthusiastic thumbs up*

Don’t take her swimming for a first date. In fact, don’t take anyone swimming. Don’t even take your best friend with you. Do not attempt to take anyone swimming whether it's a date or just a day with your own gang. Try at your own risk. I’ve warned you.

But under absolutely no circumstances should you go swimming with your crush. Ever. I don’t fucking care if you want a glimpse of them half-naked in a swimsuit, don’t do it unless you want a full day of doing an unintentional impersonation of a timebomb. It’s awful. What’s worse is when that crush is your best friend. In that case, if they even mention swimming you might as well jump off The Empire State building and hope you’re lucky enough to handle the damage. It’s much better than what you could possibly get taking your crush to go swimming.

Now, I’m being generous with you. Take my advice. You don’t know what kind of bullets I had to dodge the day I agreed to go to a waterpark with three of my friends, one including Clyde Donovan. He was the one who started my internal disaster when I was just a young, lovesick fetus just like fucking you. Although, I know I’m pretty different than you, because in your sick little mind you’d want to go to a waterpark with your crush to see their hot abs or nice tits or whatever you’re fucking into. I didn’t even want to go at first. I knew for a fact that anywhere with ladies in bikinis and life guard hotties, Clyde would be going. And he would be ogling over all of them, ( he told me that even though I was gay, I had to admit lifeguards were pretty fucking hot, female or male. ).

I’ll be completely honest with you, I really didn’t think too much about Clyde with his shirt off. Or any sort of absence of clothing on Clyde. The entire morning as we were all packing the beach bag with sunscreen and pool toys we probably wouldn’t even be using, Clyde kept his red and black trunks on and shirt around his torso. The whole car ride there, he kept it on. Through the ticket booth, the walk to the few sets of beach chairs near the kiddie water park we would be setting all of our belongings at. I didn’t even acknowledge the fabric would be coming off as soon as we settled into the park. Heck, I’d seen him in a swimsuit before anyway, just when we were younger and when I was oblivious to how much of a gay piece of shit I was.

I’m telling you that you don’t want to see your crush half-naked because of the embarrassment. I’m trying to help you. It’s only possible that all your other friends know you’ve got the hots for someone as well, and it’s up to them if they choose to tease you or not. Token, thankfully, is the only sane one in my group of friends and doesn’t bother to say anything on that topic, and Tweek couldn’t care less as long as it doesn’t effect him in any way. Jimmy, praise the fucking lord, couldn’t physically go to a waterpark anyway, so I was saved from all the corny, gay jokes he can could up within half a second. Clyde, my best friend, was the most oblivious to it.

He didn’t even think for a second that one of his friends’ face was about to flare the second he gripped the bottom of his t-shirt, kicked his sandals off, and whipped the fabric off from around his neck. He sprinted towards the mini waterpark populated with kids as the ever-so-famous 50 gallon bucket of water dumped all over everyone inside and everyone within a 5 foot radius of the park. He shouted as he lept under the water, his voice quickly drowned out as the splatting of water on concrete spilled into everyone’s ears. Tweek had attempted to rush in after him, but he only let out a usual yelp and stuttered, “IT’S W-WAY TOO COLD!!”

I could only see a tan figure where Clyde stood under the waterfall, but curiosity overtook my thoughts as I stood there frozen in place, hands reaching into the pool bag. Only after a majority of the water had draped over the playground had I heard an annoyed sigh come from behind me. I still stood waiting for the moment I’d see Clyde and Tweek again, but Token appeared from the corner of my eye, yelling with a bottle of liquid sunscreen in one of his hands.

“Clyde!! You forgot to put on sunscreen, dammit!” Token seemed like the mother of our friendship group. I always picked on him for it, but his usual reply was mainly, “You’d all be dead without me.” Which, I guess is sort of true. I smirked from behind him as he yelled at Tweek and Clyde to come back over, but upon focusing my attention back to where Token was looking, my heart started to hammer.

It wasn’t a David Hasselhoff moment like I had secretly wished it would be, but it sure was quite a fucking movie scene I stood in. Sure, it would be a movie that an 11 year old girl would probably watch, except it was one really hot, straight guy in front of a water playground for little kids and some really gay dude admiring in the distance. But, I’m more embarrassed about the fact that I was in awe over a fucking loser like Clyde Donovan than I am over any comparison to a chick-flick.

Clyde was always the pudgier kid in school, but the boy gained quite a bit of muscle from all the sports he participated in. I must have not noticed until the damn sun made him glisten, fresh out of a kiddie park. His hair has also gained a few inches in length since fourth grade ( and softness, as he’s explained to me. He “doesn’t even have to gel it to make it look this way.” ) so what captured my eye the most was, not how his hair covered up his eyes as it lay flat across his forehead, soaked, but how he subconsciously shakes his head to get the excess water off and out of his locks. My breath hitched and I think Token might have noticed, whether it was me making nervous noises in my throat or my ears starting to burn. He turned back at me and gave the the smallest smirk and cocked his eyebrow, but immediately turned away to start scolding the other two while I focused my attention back to what was inside the pool bag, gulping down a breath of air as I heard Clyde laughing distantly over the sound of the screaming in my head.

I noticed small “splat, splat, splat”s of feet on stone as someone approached me, and I only knew who it could be. It was going to be a hot day, a combination of UV rays and my own body temperature rising and falling with my emotions, but I could feel the cool vibes traveling from Clyde’s wet body over into my presence under the shade of a white and blue umbrella taking the stage above our heads. It didn’t effect me for very long. Clyde greeted me with a bottle of sunblock in his hand. My eyes traveled up along his tannish stomach and up to his face, his emerald eyes more vibrant when they weren’t under the sun, both staring right back into my own. I swallowed. _I can take this. I’ll get used to it. I can take this._

“H-hey dude, could you… maybe get my back?” _NO I CAN’T._ “You probably already saw that mom friend is going to slit my throat if I don’t get my entire body, haha.” _NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOP-_

I stood there panicking inside, hoping he wouldn’t notice my face going more crimson than it was before, but you had to be an idiot not to question why it took me so long to answer. Oh wait.

“N-No homo, sorry,” he quickly stuttered. My heart stopped and I let my eyebrows sink. Classic. Well, I wonder why I didn’t expect that. Did I mention Clyde is the straightest white boy on the planet?

I didn’t feel my cheeks cool down at all, but I embarrassingly took the bottle from his hands and turned him around so he couldn’t see. Boy fucking howdy did I want _nothing_ to do with that. Clyde’s shoulder blades stuck out the slightest, just as if he had angel wings attempting to pop out from under this skin. Oh, the irony. It looked relatively average for a teenage boy’s back, but much more muscular and thicker than what I’ve seen on my own body. Unfortunately, Clyde didn’t bother to dry himself off before he slathered on sunscreen, so there were small drips of water just, lining his muscles, making them shine. I stared for longer than I should’ve. He looked tense, waiting for the cool solution to cover his torso. _Funny how the cold water makes him look hotter.  ...Get this over with before he notices something’s wrong._

I took a deep breath and squirted some of ( way too much of ) the sunscreen into my palm, rubbed my hands together ( Why is sunscreen white? Like, of all colors? ) and placed my hands at the top of his back. My right gripped his shoulder and he flinched, not moving a finger. I held onto one side of him to keep myself from fainting right behind him while I rubbed skin-skin until the sunscreen was invisible, then switched to the other side. I wondered if I was hurting him, my fingertips were starting to leave yellow pressure marks on his shoulders. His back was more defined under the touch of my hand. My lungs refused to work while I did, but my heart sure as hell tried its’ best. I could’ve looked down at my chest and probably _see_ my own heart beating through my skin.  My ears burned all the way through the process.

When it was over, I pushed myself off of his back and sat down in the chair right behind me, breathing for the first time in what felt like years. “You’re done, lazy bastard,” I told him, before clearing my throat a few times. My eyes averted everywhere except where Clyde was standing, but I could feel his eyes drilling holes into me. I looked over at Token, who was surely watching us. The asshole had a smirk on his face that made his eyes squint from smiling, and what made me pissed off was that he was hiding it behind his hand, like everything was normal. For once I could read someone’s mind, and Token was fucking cackling. I said Token doesn’t say anything to tease me but he sure as hell thinks about it. I turned away from him, crossing my arms, but what stood right in front of me, and whole lot closer than before, was Clyde, almost touching his nose to mine. I spluttered and pushed the chair back with my heels, bringing my fingers to touch my nose. Clyde examined my face closely, squinting, and picked up the sunscreen bottle in his own hands.

“Dude, I think you should put some on your face, you’re already getting sunburn there.”

* * *

 

The four of us spent a majority of the morning ( a really cold morning at that, Clyde insisted we go to the park at the end of May when it first opened, and really early in the morning so we could be some of the firsts to visit that year, ) just wandering around, deciding which slide to scream our ( read: Tweek’s ) lungs out on first. We all had taken our sandals off and I wished I hadn’t; my toes were cold and were being scratched up on the wet concrete. The sky was slightly gray and cloudy, but the sun was still visible none the less, waiting to shine its’ way through eventually, later in the day. Tweek trailed behind us shaking, and I wouldn’t have been able to figure out whether it was because he shakes all the time, he was terrified, or he was just chilly in the morning like I was. Seeing Tweek cross his arms to keep warmth, I subconsciously started to try and rub away the goosebumps on my own. I knew the weather would warm up later, so I tried not to complain. It also might have been the fact that I was skin and bones, and that I couldn’t change.

Token led the group around with a map of the park in his hands, grumbling how everything was so far apart. He occasionally asked us what we wanted to do first, showing us the colorful piece of paper whenever he turned around. I didn’t really care, I would go on whatever everyone else went on ( secretly, as long as I wasn’t alone,). Tweek just didn’t reply and stared wide-eyed at the big rides saying, “You a-all can get yourselves killed on those rusty things I-I don’t care.”

Clyde was super eager to get to every slide, eager enough to take his right arm and slip it between my torso and my own arm, chaining us together. He exclaimed, “Craig and I’ll go on that one,” “ I’m partners with Craig on that one,” “That ride is for two people, you can guys can go together and I’ll see what other rides there are with Craig.” My stomach stood, curling every time Clyde decided he would tag along with me. I didn’t know how I felt about that idea. I wanted to be around him, of course, but I didn’t want to be around while he was flirting with the lifeguards that were 5 years older than him. I kept still, unable to move anything but my feet while Clyde refused to let my arm go. _Friends do this, right? We’ve never done this before. Do Token and Tweek notice? This is… kind of like holding hands? Is this a couple thing?_

My thoughts squirmed around in my head while I tried desperately to think of something else before my ears started to get hot again. Clyde was normally clingy at school, but not for as long as he was then. My heart was thumping harder than usual, but it felt good. To be the center of Clyde’s attention, him wanting to be at my side all day, it felt great. It stuck in my brain for a while and my surroundings clouded. I didn’t even notice Clyde was nudging my side until I heard a loud, “Hey doofus, listen when your best friend talks to you,” in Token’s voice.

I jerked at the touch of Clyde’s elbow to my cold skin. My face went straight and I realized I was smiling before, and Clyde was laughing softly. I looked over at Token, who was raising his eyebrows at me, and turning back around.

“Did you want to go on the really long one first before the lines get lengthy?” Clyde offered. I looked back at him, still standing wide-eyed, and gave him a tiny nod. His pear green eyes trailed up and down my face and around my ears, and back into contact with mine. I didn’t know why, but he bit his lip, like I knew he did when he tried not to smile. I furrowed my eyebrows in reply.

“What?” I questioned, but Clyde only turned his head forward again, chuckling and looking down at his feet.

“Don’t worry about it.” Clyde squeezed my arm tighter under his, and we walked along in between our friends again. He didn’t let go of my arm until we reached the start of the first line.  

Our first stop was, as decided, the longest ride in the park. Token had read on the pamphlet with all the names of the rides that the slide was a mile long, and completely pitch black. Surprisingly,  there weren’t many people waiting in line. That was a blessing and a curse, however, because I could hear Clyde’s breathing start to get heavy as we approached the top of the wooden stairwell. You could see the parking lot down below, tons of cars piling in late. The temperature was already warming up as the sun peeked through the gray clouds, and I couldn’t look down for more than a couple seconds, as the glares were reflecting off the cars and hurting my eyes. I turned over to Clyde, and I caught him staring back at me, with the goofiest smile on his face. When I shot him a confused look, he snapped back into his senses and averted his eyes, cheeks turning pink. I didn’t understand, but decided to let it go. Clyde shut his eyes and cleared his throat before looking back at me.

“S-so, you ready?” He asked, as the lifeguard pushed the raft holding group in front of us down into the abyss of a slide, all of them screaming and hollering as they slid with the water. Clyde brought his hand to my shoulder to hold himself steady, watching the raft disappear. He gulped and I couldn't help but laugh over my last-minute jitters too.

“Readier than you,” I replied, shoving his arm over, and he flinched. Clyde made a fist and planted a light punch on my upper arm with an adorable look on his face. I think he was trying to be intimidating. Tweek was gripping Token’s shoulder and yelped as the next raft was taken off the escalator and spun into the water. The lifeguard looked to the four of us and presented the bright yellow raft to us like a limo driver. Except he had a shit-eating grin that I had felt I’d seen before. Probably on Clyde. Whatever it was, I didn’t like it and I knew he was loudly cackling in his head. I could be exaggerating, but I was terrified as well and it seemed everyone was against me.

We took small steps into the raft, and my heart was pounding. The water bit my ankles with it’s chilly temperature, and I sat down.

The lifeguard instructed us to lay our legs straight out and in the middle to balance the raft ( _it can flip over??_ ), and to stay inside until the guy at the bottom stops it. I was biting my lip and shivering because of the water. Why was I forcing myself into this. My heart stammered. I could hear from across the raft in Tweek’s voice, “ I don’t want to do this I don’t want to do this I don’t want t-” over and over. This was of course under the sound of Clyde letting out nervous laughter, trying to cover up his fear too. Token was the only one with a straight face.

However, as we all took a deep breath and the lifeguard gripped one of the handles on the raft to push us down, Token spoke up and said, boldly, “Can you spin the raft?”

The other three of us immediately started shouting in protest with, “Oh my god”s and “AGH!! NONONONONONONON-”s while the lifeguard winked back at him and the next few people in line started to laugh. The lifeguard, in his stupid red shirt, took a huff and turned the raft into a spinning motion before shoving the back of it down the slide.

Tweek, as expected, guided us into hell, no going back, with the sound of his screeching, all mixed in with Token’s hooting and Clyde and I’s yelling. The raft spun out of control and into darkness. Our yells echoed inside the slide, leaving us with nothing but what sounded like a haunted mansion and water spraying and splashing all over and around us. It reeked of old plastic and chlorine, not it mattered too much, as I was screaming and yelling “Jesus fucking christ oh my god what the hell oh my god” the entirety of the slide. Sometimes we would speed up, and sometimes we would go slower, only to hit a bump and speed up again. We could never tell when the ride was almost over.

When we hit the first bump, through the darkness I searched for Clyde, who sitting to the right of me, and grabbed ahold of him to keep balance. That was my only goal until my one hand held his warm skin around his arm, and Clyde took both arms and pulled me in close. I could hear his screaming easily now, as it muffled everything else. Without the sight I started to imagine what he looked like. I imagined him burying his face into my back like he was then, hair crazier than it had ever been, screaming his lungs out as water splashed his face repeatedly. It was hilarious to imagine and I started to laugh, wrapping my arms around him in return. Clyde and I held each other in fear and laughter all the way until the end of the ride. Every last bump, splash, even back into the sunlight as the raft started to slow down officially and approach the end of the slide. Our yells were quieter without the echoing, Tweek was gasping for air and gripping the handles on the raft for his life, while Token was laughing so hard he could barely open his eyes. With all the water, I couldn’t tell if Token was crying. Clyde still held onto my torso, letting his voice die out and allowing himself to start to laugh along with Token and I. I felt my cheeks and ears were pink, and I forgot the water was even chilly. Clyde felt really warm. I, without thinking, hugged him even tighter. Clyde gulped, but I could feel him smiling and as he hugged me back.

Token just kept trying to stop himself from laughing at Tweek as Tweek insulted him and kept asking him aggressively why the hell he would ask the lifeguard to do that. I laughed into Clyde’s chest until I felt like I was the only one making noise. I looked up.

The raft was approaching the end pool, and I had felt two pairs of eyes burning into my face. Tweek just sat silently with a confused look on his face, no longer screaming. Token looked like a disappointed father, but still surprised. “Um...” he said. They both caught Clyde and I’s attention, and when I looked back down I realized what I was doing. I realized how my elbows were wrapped around Clyde’s neck, my chest pressed against his. “The ride is over, homos.”

Clyde jerked up and we both pushed each other away, and I crossed my arms until the new lifeguard at the bottom pulled our raft to the side, telling us to exit feet first. I couldn’t look at Clyde, I could feel my face fuming. I couldn’t even remember how cold the morning was before. I let my hair sit over my eyes, hoping it was enough to cover my entire face. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I stepped out of the pool with my eyes pointed downward. I could hear the other two laughing and I looked up at my three friends, giving them an annoyed scowl.

“H-he fucking hugged me first!” My voice squeaked and probably didn’t match my expression at all, and I noticed Tweek roll his eyes and start walking away as Clyde brought a hand to his mouth. He was speaking quietly, muffling his voice in his palm.

“C-C-Craig was the first to grab me-” Clyde said, but was immediately interrupted by Tweek groaning and walking faster, and Token speaking over him.

“Jesus, it was the first ride! You _grabbed_ him?” Token said, cocking an eyebrow. He didn’t used to be such an asshole in elementary school. I must have rubbed off on him.

“IT WAS HIS _ARM,_ ASSHOLES,” I exclaimed before Token could say any more. Token only cackled and Clyde grumbled under his breath, annoyed, something like, “Let’s just get to the next ride.”

Token loved to attack me when he caught me eyeing Clyde or doing whatever. Most of the time he would just tell me to toughen up and go confess to him already, or.. on rare occasions when he feels it's necessary, he can be a complete ass. I can never tell if he is supporting me or not. At least he doesn’t out me to Clyde.

A little ways to the next slide, Token came up to my side after handing Clyde the map and letting him choose where to go next with Tweek. I followed along behind everyone to let my face cool down. Token nudged my side and I turned to look at him.

“You’re not going to make it through the day, Craig,” he told me with another grin on his face, and I threw him another one of my signature glares. Of all days he decided to be nosy.

“I probably could, as long as I’m without you butting in on everything we’re doing.” That was a lie. I kept my eyebrows furrowed, but noticed Token’s expression change. Instead of some other sassy remark he could’ve given, Token just gave me a familiar… “reassuring parent” look. I don’t know if Token was a dad in his past life, but he sure acts like it. He acts like both a father and a mother figure all in one and it’s almost nice. He is one of those jars with both peanut butter and jelly inside. Most of the adults in South Park are idiots, and really, most of the people in our friendship group need some sort of parent figure, as nice as our actual parents are. Clyde doesn’t even have a mom anymore, and I can see clearly that even though Token is just one of his friends, he likes having someone to remind him to eat and put on sunscreen or whatever Token does for his group of friends. It’s just funny that Token doesn’t even know what we’re talking about when we mention he parents us. I was once tempted to give him a “#1 Mom” mug for Christmas one year., just to confuse him.

“Craig, just go and tell him. It’ll work out one way or another.”

I pursed my lips and felt my face melt back into a straight one. He really thinks it’s that easy. I don’t even know what he did with Nicole, it couldn’t have been that easy. You’d think someone would have to set them up or something. I didn’t know that I could trust anyone to set up a good situation for me to tell Clyde, as that was the opposite of what I wanted to do. I looked straight forward and shut my eyes, nodding. I doubted I would be doing so any time soon, but I would have to eventually, as much as I didn’t want to.  

The rest of the morning, which was probably a good two hours, was mainly filled with waiting in lines for a majority of the time, and Clyde and I didn’t do anything stupid for a while. It wasn’t tension, nor was it just plain embarrassment. After Token had approached me I decided that this was a day meant to be with my friends, cheesy as it was. The last thing I wanted was to ruin it with my own feelings.

Sure, every once in awhile I would catch Clyde with his big green orbs on me, to which at first he would avert his eyes and pretend nothing happened, but later would just smile over at me as the morning went on, and the memory of first ride traveled further into the past. It tickled my heart strings either way, but I tried my best not to think about it too much.

The atmosphere grew warmer as we did alongside it, and everyone was hungry by the time early afternoon came around. Clyde was grumbling about the food stands smelling really good, ( “But I only have six dollars, Token!!” “How do you expect to pay for actual food with that at a waterpark??” “I don’t know, hehe.” ) and we settled down under an umbrella table near the front of the park. Tweek and Token, being the only ones who actually brought enough money to pay for their own food, had told us to meet back there if we were to wander off. We both nodded and I rested my head on the table. I wished I had thought to bring money in the morning. There was no going back then. I sighed. At least it was warm out. I’d accepted to have to live with the taste of chlorine in my mouth after Tweek dunked me in the exit pool at the bottom of the fishbowl ride for the rest of the day. I turned my head upward to get a look at what Clyde was doing in the silence. He sat there counting his six single dollars, probably hoping to magically turn them into larger bills, as he huffed every time he counted his last dollar.

“D’jou bring anything for food?” he asked, looking down at me. I sleepily shook my head in reply. Clyde groaned quietly and rested his head against the table, just as I did. His eyes gazed into mine from the little distance apart our faces sat. He smiled over at me, and it seemed to warm everything in a 20 foot radius. I don’t think my face was any pink, but I could feel the ghostly tingle of a blush on my cheeks. I was used to Clyde being this close. There had been plenty of sleepovers and movie nights we shared together, just falling asleep closer than any two friends could be. Hearts pounding, listening to the sound of each other’s soft breaths. The beams that his parakeet colored eyes set off when they lit up always made my stomach curl, but when they just gave me this indescribable look of fondness, I never went as nuts at I would expect myself to. My vision scaled his face, checking to see if everything was the same. His thick jaw and circular head shape stayed in tact, narrow eyebrows and plump nose in the same position they were always in. From being in the sun, I noticed faint freckles starting to show themselves, peppering his pinkish cheeks and nose. My favorite things about his face were his lips. Almost always, at least when I stayed with Clyde, they were stretched into a smile. They showed so much expression, and I loved them for it. I took small glances whenever I knew Clyde wouldn’t notice them. I didn’t just want to kiss them, I had to hold back. Even in that moment by the table, just staring face to face, part of me wouldn’t care if Clyde didn’t want to, I would’ve pulled him right into a kiss then and there, but I couldn’t for obvious reasons.

It didn’t make me upset, just admiring him was all I could afford, and it was just fine that way. When my eyes made their way back up to his, his lips curled back further, eyes squinting the slightest. Clyde sat up, and I turned to continue watching what he was doing, curious. Clyde arched his back and stretched his arms out. I wouldn’t have cared, but my attention was so focused on him that I was very closely aware of the long, hoarse whine Clyde let out as he stretched his entire torso back. Maybe there had been nerves building up inside for the few minutes before that I had just let out, or I can switch from off to on in a matter of 0.5 seconds, but I had felt a little bit of blood travel south, thankfully not enough to make anything happen. I was glad the tables were nice and not see through. I still sat with my chest on top of the table, bent over, intentionally trying to hide my blushing face with my hair. _I am literal garbage for getting turned on by_ **_that._ **

Clyde set his hand on my shoulder and flipped me over. I squinted at him, furrowing my eyebrows. I wasn’t actually sleepy, just stubborn. Clyde bent his knees to get to my height before chuckling and grabbing my hand to pull me up to my feet. I stumbled in surprise, but caught my balance as Clyde offered, “I can probably get us some ice cream if you’re hungry.”

I could’ve at least _tried_  to be polite, but I couldn’t refuse his offer. It was starting to get hot outside ( “outside” ), and ice cream was an offer I simply could not refuse.

“You sure you can afford it?”

“It’s worth a try, I guess.”

I trudged along beside Clyde as we searched the small little hot dog and pizza stands for a cheap way out of starvation, at least to last us until we arrived at home later that day. All the people working the stands just shrugged when we asked if there was and ice cream place somewhere nearby, or we completely walked away whenever we saw the prices. Everything made six dollars seem worthless, when technically it almost was. It wasn’t until we were twenty minutes into rushing around and talking that Clyde spotted a small little umbrella popped open above a small little ice cream stand near the far side of the tables. He grabbed my hand and pulled me along side him. A shock rushed through my arm as Clyde held my hand in his, assertively but still gently touching. Out of shock and being pulled, my eyes widened and a smile melted it’s way onto my face. I had no self control with Clyde dragging me across the court.

The stand was awfully tiny and was only being run by one woman in a sun hat, who greeted us with a bright smile that still shined even under the shade of the umbrella as we approached her. Glass stood between us and the lady when our feet came to a stop, allowing us to admire the little variety of simple flavors. My hand was starting to sweat, but Clyde didn’t let go of my hand. I figured he had forgotten and was too busy to notice he was squeezing my hand tighter than before. Clyde glanced over at the menu and his mouth melted into a straight line. I noticed some color start to powder his cheeks.

“Uh.., I think I can only get one cone, dude,” he said, trying not to turn his head in my direction. My first thought was to let him buy his own, it was his money after all. I raised my hand and opened my mouth to speak but he interrupted me.

“I-I’ll get a vanilla, please,” he stuttered. I closed my mouth. Plain vanilla? But it was so.. boring? I didn’t understand why Clyde would order anything like that. Normally he would order something absolutely ridiculous that could probably make anyone except him puke their guts out. Butterscotch on chocolate…. nasty. He conditioned me to only liking plain old vanilla. That was my favorite, after all-

_No._

The woman nodded after Clyde handed her his cash, and proceeded to scoop the ice cream with her over-sized spoon. I elbowed Clyde to make him look over at me. I mouthed the word, “What?”, tilting my eyebrows and making sure to look as confused as I felt. Was he buying this for himself? I had hoped he was. This isn’t something Clyde would do anyway. He didn’t give me any other reply than a tiny smile, before taking the cone from the smiling woman’s hands and thanking her, before trailing off again with my hand in his. He looked back down at me and held out the ice cream in front of me.

“Here.”

Who was I even talking to? This wasn’t even Clyde. The Clyde I knew since I was tiny wouldn’t think for a million years to use his money to buy an ice cream for someone else. He’d take it for himself! My lips stood parted in surprise. Clyde only raised his eyebrows and pushed his arm forward, reminding me to take it. I could hear the woman in the stand behind us giggling, and my face started to flush again.

“N-no. You bought it. It’s yours,” I argued.

“I got it for you,” he replied back. My heart skipped.

“It’s your money.  Therefore it’s your ice cream.”

“I used my money on you. Deal with it, Tucker.” My heart tripped over. He had used my last name. At least I knew then he wasn’t joking. But stupid me continued to fight back over my own embarrassment, as we had stopped dead in our tracks and my eyes kept wandering over to the woman in the sun hat, who was hiding a smile behind a magazine while she waited for her next customer. She wore sunglasses, but I knew she was looking at us. She was getting the wrong idea, and teasing me from afar. The quirky asshat.

“Well… then… I won’t have it. It wouldn’t be fair. I didn’t bring any mone-”

“I got your favorite for a reason, Craig, just take it.” My heart forgot how to work. It stammered all over the place while I could feel my ears turning redder and redder. I didn’t dare look over at the woman.   _He remembered my favorite? Of course he did, it’s easy to remember. He’s being friendly. He wouldn’t do this for Token…. or.. Jimmy, would he? Is he.. caring about you? No, he’s just doing the polite thing to do. Since when is Clyde Donovan polite?_

My thoughts buzzed around like a bunch of mad jellyfish, and I grabbed the ice cream cone, ripping it out of Clyde’s hands, and he only laughed. The ice cream had already started to melt during our argument, and I felt a cool drip kiss the top of my hand. I licked the sides of the cone to make sure it wouldn’t happen again, and it tasted sweeter. I hadn’t had ice cream in a while as we were only fresh out of the winter months, but this surely tasted sweeter than I had ever remembered it to be. I guess I was enjoying the moment too much.

As we made our way back to the meet-up table, I came into realization that Clyde hadn’t done any of the usual Clyde things that day. At least, he didn’t do anything we all expected him to do. I don't know what the other guys felt, but I sure as hell noticed Clyde was acting differently. I thought I was jinxing myself then, but Clyde had not once complimented one of the bikini girls walking around the park, he didn’t make any comments about the “hot female lifeguards,” it was like the asshole wasn’t even there. Not to mention the countless times he stood closer than normal, or better yet, hooked arms or even held hands with me like he was that very second as we escorted each other back to the table. In fact, I had noticed that almost every time I would look over at Clyde, he would be looking right back. Most of his attention was placed toward me, and it took me that long to notice after all the other things I ¨noticed” that day. I licked the perimeter of my ice cream a second time. It was all too confusing to take in at once. It would’ve been better if I hadn’t noticed at all. Was Clyde doing this for a reason? Did he know? If he knew, it would be absolutely awful. It wouldn’t be Clyde not to bring it up, though.

But, I really couldn’t stop myself from smiling. When was the last time- when had Clyde ever consciously try to make me feel as sweet as I felt then? He clearly was trying to care about me, unless all the attention was making me feel vain. I kept my head turned away from him so he wouldn’t see me pursing my lips. Had I done anything for him lately?  Was he trying to repay me? I didn’t think I had done anything _that_  out of the ordinary. I shifted my head and my eyes met with his for the thousandth time that day. He was definitely out for something. I just didn’t know what. It felt nice to be cared for as much as Clyde was caring for me then. My heart beat lightly, happily, all the way until we took our seat at the same table as before. Clyde’s fingers de-tangled themselves from mine as we sat down. I had to thank him.

I knew that even though Clyde insisted that the ice cream be mine, he still probably wanted a lick or two. No one I recognized was around to tease me about it, so I held the cone out in front of him.

“We can share. I’ll feel bad, and I don’t think I can finish this,” I offered. Clyde was the one to flare up this time instead of me, and he brought a loose fist to his face, eyebrows raised and pupils dilating.

“It’s okay-” he stuttered, but it was my turn to interrupt him.

“Go ahead, I don’t care. I want to share.”

“I don’t even like vanil-”

“Bullshit. Just take your turn already.”

Clyde gave me a nervous look and bent over, leaning on his elbows, firmly planted on his thighs.  He eyed the ice cream like it was a time bomb, and he was the one to cut the cords to defuse it. If anything, he looked like a timebomb, his face was so red and steaming that it looked as if he could explode at any second.  I shook the ice cream in my hands to remind him to _hurry up, the ice cream is melting._

“Where should I b-bite?” he asked. I didn't even try to understand what kind of a ridiculous question that was. It was surely a question Clyde would ask, anyway. Who the hell bites ice cream, honestly?

“Oh, lick it, you dumbass. It’s not going to do anything to your fragile ego,” I said, impatiently.

Clyde turned an even redder color than he was before, rubbing his neck and averting his eyes. I cherished his embarrassment. It was pure bliss to be the one doing the embarrassing for a few seconds, but that was before I noticed the way he licked the ice cream. It was a super small lick at first, probably to be stubborn and make sure to control the amount of frozen flavor he eats.

But, before I could take it back for my own taste again, Clyde grabbed the hand holding the ice cream and kept it close as he let out more length of his tongue, running it along the sides of the checker-patterned cone and catching the drips of the white treat ( Again, of all colors? ). I felt more rushes down south again, and I tried to cross my legs without making my suspicious hiding too obvious. Any more of that and I surely be popping one. It was a shame we had more than half the ice cream to go. But, not really.

While we waited for the other two to get back, we just took turns taking big licks along the ice cream, and I didn't think twice about how I continued to overly sexualize a friendly gesture of sharing an ice cream cone.The ice cream tasted spectacular. It must have been pretty appetizing to Clyde too; Clyde sometimes licked the flavors off of his lips, or whimpered when he swallowed, only because it tasted good. It could've been me taking in too much of the moment, getting slightly ( pretty ) turned on. Just regular ol _’_  gaywad Craig admiring his best friend lick an ice cream cone like a fucking dick. What an asshole.

I could feel every one of my limbs being squeezed tightly against my body while I was giving my all at crossing my legs, trying to hide my half-erection and turn away to even make a reliable attempt at calming down, but the scene felt too enjoyable to watch. He wasn't bent over anymore, I was kind enough to not rest my hand on my knee when it was his turn. Clyde was surely more flustered than I was, but after a few more strokes of the frozen vanilla with his tongue, his eyebrows sunk, and his lips grew into a grin I was way too familiar with.

Here is a lesson about Mr. Clyde Donovan. Hey may appear as though he is a sweet, innocent, little human version of a golden retriever, but I’ve known this kid for as long as I can remember ( too long ). Clyde Donovan was the little fourth grader with Playboy magazines in his drawers. Clyde Donovan was most eager to see the Canadian foreign film that destroyed about half the country’s lives. Clyde Donovan, let me tell you, was the child that did a project on lesbian cheerleaders in elementary school. He is known for his frequent sobbing and being the biggest suck-up loyal friend to anybody he cares about, but Clyde Donovan is not the angel he seems to be at all, whatsoever.  Whether it’s getting revenge for being banished from the universe or sexual innuendoes, Clyde can go a little crazy with anything. And when he gets or feels as though he is being attacked, he will, most certainly, fight fire with fire. By _playing_ with fire.

“So, Craig, you like vanilla?” I could’ve sworn he _wanted_ to be punched.

“....Yeah,” I replied, squinting my eyes and bringing the ice cream to my face. I made sure to keep my frown pinned down as I opened my mouth again. My tongue pushed to lick the ice cream flat, leveling it with the cone. I had to turn my wrist to stuff the ice cream entirely into the cone, before handing it back to Clyde. Clyde kept his eyes relaxed, raising his eyebrows and humming sweetly. My suspicion increased, as did the size of his malicious smile.

“You’re _really_ into vanilla?” he toyed, teeth gripping the edges of the cone and snapping a piece off with a light _crunch_. He chewed it slowly, gazing into my stare. I could see hellish flames erupting behind his irises. They were sticking their tongues out at me like children, acting like I was ignorant. Nothing I couldn’t beat down with a towel, however.

“Yeah, you’re pretty lucky I was generous enough to _give some_ to you.” I could almost feel the cold and rough texture of a pistol in my hand, and I shot Clyde down. My lips stitched themselves into a smirk, and I licked the vanilla once more.

He spluttered and coughed a few times, more of his nervous humming trying to force itself through the sound of Clyde clearing his throat. He turned his head away and rubbed his neck bashfully. The tension only grew with his silence, but was repeatedly interrupted by Clyde clearing his throat and coughing every couple seconds. I could see sweat start to bead on his forehead, and his hand, still resting on the back of his neck, cupped his throat in his palm. He held it in a few seconds longer until his uncontrollable coughing acted up again, squeezing his eyes shut and bringing his inner elbow to his mouth. He was choking. My content and complete feeling of embarrassing Clyde disintegrated into a concerned one, and I grabbed Clyde’s hand away from his throat.

“Hey,.. Hey are you okay??” I asked him anxiously. With my hand in a firm grip around his wrist he loosened the captivity of his hand and pointed to his throat, still attempting to clear it.

“I choked on the cone,” he coughed, forcing his words in order for me to hear them. His voice was hoarse, and as terrifying as it sounded it still relieved me; he could get enough air to speak. He wasn’t going to die.

My hands set him free as he continued to try and hold in his wheezing, probably to try and keep the attention away from himself in public, while I frantically looked left and right like I would find something that could be of use. The table remained empty every time my eyes laid upon it.

Sweating, I mumbled under my breath, “Uh.. um um hold on you aren’t going to die hold on.” I bent over and searched under the table, not expecting to find anything, until behind me I heard the sound of a bag rustling and then hitting concrete. Turning around brought me to a real life Token rushing over with a bottle of water in his hand and Tweek scrambling behind him, trying to hold the beach tote slung over his shoulder.

Token twisted the cap and flicked it off with his thumb before taking the ice cream cone away from Clyde’s grasp, which was now covered with melted vanilla ice cream all over his knuckles, and replacing it with the plastic bottle.

“Drink,” Token commanded, and Clyde nodded with wide eyes, pressing the top of the bottle to his lips and taking a few noisy gulps. Clyde pulled the bottle away with a “pop” and let out a sigh of relief. He was breathing heavily, almost bit over reactively, shutting his eyelids. He switched the hand holding the bottle and then pressed the previous one to his forehead to cool himself down. Token stared him dead in the eye, wiping the melted ice cream off of his hands with a brown napkin, before asking Clyde if he was alright. Clyde cleared his throat once more, this time successfully, and spoke.

“Yeah,.. yeah I’m fine. Thanks, Token,” he said. Clyde opened his eyes and looked down at the bottle in his grip. It was crumpled and dented from Clyde’s struggle to hold in his coughing, and half empty from his large “sips”. Clyde removed his hand from his forehead, and subconsciously rested it on the wire bench wrapping around the perimeter of the table to sit himself upright. His hand missed it’s target, however, and his icy palm landed right on top of the back of my own.  Cold hands; warm heart, warm hands; cold heart.

“Uh, you can have this back if you want,” Clyde said, awkwardly holding the bottle out to Token. Token shook his head and gently pushed the bottle back towards Clyde.

“No, you both were too forgetful to bring an acceptable amount of money, but you have to drink water, it’s hot out. So I bought us all one. Craig, do you want yours?” he asked, turning to face me. I was too busy beaming at Clyde’s hand, set like stone on top of mine, refusing to move. The Window’s Error noise playing in my brain prevented me from deciding whether or not Clyde made another move, and Token had to say my name again to snap me out of the trance I fell into. I jerked up and remembered his question, nodding. My ears felt heated and the palm being covered by Clyde’s touch started to sweat. I needed to calm down, water was I all I had needed. Token twisted the cap open ( without flicking the cap off this time ) and handed it to me. I could feel him trying to communicate with me without words while the opening of the bottle was pressed against my lips; his eyebrows furrowed confusingly enough for me to notice, and his eyes motioned back and forth from my direction to the hand being held. _Damn him, why did he have to pick up on things so quickly?_ I shook my head discreetly at him, swallowing, and he nodded, stood up, and walked over to the trashcan to throw his used paper towel in. _He expected me to confess to Clyde already? He was insane._

I did everything in my power to focus on something else other than Clyde’s hand very slowly tightening its hold around my fingers. My eyes searched for a target to lock on, and when I glanced over in Clyde’s direction, I expected him to be looking over at me, he had gotten back into the swing of following me like a moth does to light since the first waterslide incident, but instead he was only leaning against the table behind him, facing outward, and holding his chin up with his other arm on the table. I followed his gaze, he was listening to Tweek ramble. Tweek was going on about how his stomach was killing him from too much accidental chlorine consumption and how he got pissed at a lady at the concession stand for not serving coffee. He hadn’t had any caffeine since this morning, because the park didn’t allow outdoor foods or beverages, and by the way he kept fidgeting the three of us could tell he was desperate, but the poor boy had to wait a while longer. Clyde only sat there with his eyes drooped and laughing at all of Tweek’s complaining over pointless things. He didn’t look at me, but while I continued to gaze over at him he would squeeze my hand in his, maybe to reassure to me he was there.

I wasn’t fuming anymore, or I didn’t feel like I was, and our conversations started to die down quite a bit. The afternoon sun was relaxing and tiring, and it seemed to calm everybody down. Clyde and I waited for Token and Tweek to finish their bought and paid for food, Clyde occasionally taking a handful of fries from Token’s tray across the table ( I knew for a fact that Clyde wouldn’t be sharing those ), and by the time they had finished eating, Token already had the beach bag slung over his shoulder and the brochure sprawled out on the table with the colorful map side facing up, using his pointer finger to beacon ideas on where we could head next.

“I still have a decent amount of money left, I could rent a couple rafts and we can go to the wavepool,” Token offered, and everyone nodded in agreement. It was about time we had some excitement, then. The bag started to slip down his shoulder and he swung it around again. Token took a close look at the paper, peering into it like he was going to shoot lasers from his irises, then handed it to us. He had been trying to memorize where to go.

“I’m going to go put this in a locker.,” he said, nudging his head to the bag, “The rental rafts are over there and I’ll meet you all in a couple minutes.” I felt almost awkward watching Token for the majority of the day and not witnessing him pushing a stroller. He was a much of a mom as he had ever been for the last few hours,  and we didn’t dare not listen to him. Clyde turned his head and looked down at our hands intertwined, and his pupils dilated. He stood on his feet and pulled me up with my hand still in his. He sighed a puff of air, and let go.

Tweek, Clyde and I’s feet started warming on the dry concrete as we walked, and I felt sand start to seep in between my toes, and when I looked to the left of the path we headed on to get to the wavepool, the kid’s sandbox was occupied by a few young kids equipped with plastic shovels and pales. It surprised me to not see them throwing sand at each other, but rather just building sand castles and drawing. When I was a kid, dirt was my ultimate weapon, and those kids weren’t wielding what could’ve been a spectacular blinding tool. A little boy ran past me and hitting me on the side, and I turned around on reflex with an annoyed look on my face. Clyde immediately put his hand on my shoulder, telling me something, “He’s just a kid.”

After Clyde smoothed my ruffled feathers and Tweek moved along faster in front of us, we continued on until we found the stand with a banner telling us it was the place we needed to be. Behind the stand and the young worker attending it were many translucent inner tubes, light blue in color and marked with the name of the park, advertising the rental stand and the prices. The guy running the stand looked about the same age as most of the other employees we had already seen, young adults, doing their job, and while he waited for the next person to come up he would sit on his phone mindlessly, tapping and scrolling with his thumb. As we got closer to the stand, he looked up from the screen and made eye contact with us, recognizing us as customers. Clyde waved like an idiot and we made our way to the side of the desk the guy was behind, and the guy’s gaze started to fade when he realized we weren’t there to get anything yet. We waiting around for Token, and the guy’s eyes kept glancing towards us, mainly Tweek, I think he was concerned about all of Tweek’s twitching.

After a few more minutes, maybe 4 or 5, Token came up the same sidewalk we had traveled on before with a few green pieces of paper in his hands, and absence of a beach bag over his shoulder. He looked around and caught us in his eyes and started towards us.

“Alright, how many should we rent?” he asked, and the guy looked up from his phone at us again, and tried to act like he wasn’t listening in. Token continued, “I’m pretty sure there’s enough for four…” he demurred, the dollars in his fingers. Clyde poked in.

“I don’t need one, I can just hang on the ledges in the wall,” he claimed, pointing over in the deep end. Token nodded, recounting his few bills. Tweek raised his hand a bit and said he didn’t want to go deep in the pool, so he didn’t need one either. Token looked to me and I shrugged, I didn’t care.

Token approached the front of the stand to which the guy clicked his phone to sleep and set it down on the desk while Token made his order. He handed a few dollars in and received 2 inner tubes in return, which were bigger than they looked from behind the stand and probably heavier, as Token struggled to pull each one over the counter and carry both at the same time. He rolled one in my direction and I picked it up, and I wouldn’t dare to attempt to put it around my waist, so instead I only hooked it around my upper arm and we took our steps toward the wave pool.

Despite the people laughing and hollering in the distant deep end where the waves were much larger, intimidation was one of the only things the four of us received as we came closer to the beginning of the slope of the water. At the front, there was a long, plastic drain covering lining the entrance to the pool where water continued to giggle and sploosh into. Specks of sand gathered in the shallow end, having traveled on children playing in the sandbox nearby. Token asked Tweek to hold his change while everyone else went into the pool, so Clyde and I had a head start into the water.

Small, vulnerable ripples of what used to be waves were gliding through and across the concrete within the pool, and when I stepped in, my feet weren’t used to the chilly water and it nibbled my toes. The bleached stone under the water gradually got deeper and deeper the further we stepped into the wave pool, and it was a bit scratchy as well, due to the bits of sand that had sunk to the bottom and were circling with the ripples. Clyde rushed into the water, completely disregarding the cold temperature of the liquid and when he was waist deep, he began to rub his arms while he waited for Token and I to inch our way to him and get used to the cold water slowly.

“C’mon, it’s easier to g-get it over with quickly!”, Clyde shivered, motioning us further with his arms. Token came up to my side, and proceeded to grumble something about Clyde being insane. Token let his tube float right side up as soon as the water was up to his waist, and he sunk underwater, plugging his nose with his fingers, and shot back up through the center of the inner tube before grabbing ahold of the handles on either side. He began kicking his way further into the water, and I followed in his steps by placing the tube lightly on the water and going underwater to head inside of my own tube. I took a deep breath and sunk into the water quickly, letting it fill my ears and pinch my cheeks. I surfaced in the middle of my tube, and all I could see was my surroundings tinted blue and blurry through the plastic. I kicked my legs a tiny bit to bring myself higher and grip the handles, and when I looked over and could see clearly again, all I saw was a shocked Token looking in my direction, but his eyes pointed underwater.

When my eyes followed his beaming, I suddenly felt someone grab my legs and force me upward, and I yelped. My entire upper torso was above the inner tube and the same pair of hands separated to grab my back and tilt me sideways over the tube. Higher up, I could see who was in the pool, and I singled out the only person it could’ve been, the one who wasn’t above the water.

“Clyde what the hell!!??” I shouted, as I was lifted just a bit higher and Clyde’s head popped up from the water underneath me. I couldn’t see his face, but his laughing was amplified from being surrounded by the donut shape of the raft.

“Sit in the tube! I’ll push you deeper into the pool! Jeez, you’re so light!!! I feel like you shouldn’t be the height you are, hehe,” he quipped. My face started to grow hot again and I kicked my legs to make him let go. He had raised me higher than the fucking lion king and I demanded he set me down. My back was placed down on one side of the tube while my ass sank through the opening in the water, my legs holding my body up over the opposite side of the tube. Clyde popped up from out of the water, this time on the outside of the tube, and he shook the water out of it so he could see again. My stomach did a flip, but I immediately crossed my arms and glared at him.

“Don’t fucking pick me up like that, asshole!” I hissed, but Clyde only giggled like he usually did when I made nasty replies. He swam around to where I couldn’t see him behind me, and he warned, “Sit tight, I’ll push you.”

I expected him to push me at light speed, but I overestimated the water and although I could hear him trying to push me harder, with tiny grunts and deep breaths as the waves started to get bigger, the water got deeper and it started to become too much for him to swim against the current. I started to sweat as my entire body was moving with the waves under me, and I feared I would fall off. Clyde swam like a big dog over and into my sight, getting a few mouthfuls of water as he moved with the waves. He forced himself up and gripped onto one of the handles on the side of the tube, and hung onto it like he wasn’t holding himself up for dear life. He pulled it off and gave me another goofy smile, the one where he squints as well, and tapped my foot with his finger.

“...Yeah?” I asked. Clyde orbited the tube once more and said, in the most menacing way he could’ve sounded in his real voice,

“Wanna go even deeper?”

My eyes widened and I started to splutter out the words “No,” and “Oh my fucking god,” as we were already deep enough to where Clyde could barely speak without swallowing water. I turned my head frantically, searching for Token, and when I spotted him he only put off his father act and shrugged at my terrified expression.

As Clyde pushed me further and further my words started to evolve into slurred noises and eventually into shouts. The waves made me feel like I was in the middle of a storm out at sea, and all the other park visitors’ screaming didn’t help one bit. I could hear faint laughter coming from Clyde behind me over the sounds of water raging here and there, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. My heart pounded along with my anger of getting so terrified and under Clyde’s control. My knuckles turned white from gripping the handles to keep myself on, and Clyde must have swam around me while my eyes were glued shut, because one of his grabby hands stole my foot and I screamed louder than the over reacting teenage girls from across the pool. Clyde busted a fuse and died cackling for almost a minute, before I heard a bit of his voice shouting something about taking me back. I sighed in relief, after what felt like forever. We were probably only in the deep end for a little more than a minute, but my fears took toll and Clyde couldn’t act like an asshole forever. He still whined after we got to slightly calmer waters.

“Awww, you’re no fun. I swallowed all that water for nothing,” he complained. I would’ve kicked him if he was on the other side of the tube.

“I didn’t ASK for that. A-and I didn’t ASK for your face to pop up where my ass should’ve been,” I insulted. Clyde sat silently for a few seconds after that, and took longer to come around to the other side of the tube again, where I could see his face. When he did, his freckled cheeks were a little bit pink, but he didn’t say anything.

We both caught our breath, Clyde taking a few coughs to get water out of his throat, not bothering to search for Token again. When I was finally breathing correctly again and my throat only stung a bit from screaming, I shut my eyes, and leaned back into the raft, exhaling slowly. The air-filled tube cushioned my back, and while 10% of my body was still in the water, everything else had dried and was warming in the sun. I figured if mom friend was around, he’d tell me to put on more sunscreen, but it felt nice not feeling greasy. I shut my eyes and daydreamed while the crowd’s hoots and hollers in the deep end were in the distance. It had almost seemed quiet compared to a few minutes before. More peaceful, definitely. I doubted that if I were to jump out of the tube I’d be able to touch the bottom with my toes and have my head stick up above the surface, but I didn’t let it burden me.

A few minutes into the relaxation of warming in the sun like a fucking lizard, I felt a slight tug on my right arm, which was slung over while I twirled the tips of my fingers in the water. I turned my head and cracked open one eye. Clyde had grabbed my hand again. He had been sitting on the side of the raft since be both stopped mid-conversation. He had his head turned away from me, to where all I could see were his ears shaded rose and a little bit of his cheeks, because of his round face. His hair was dripping. I turned my body in his direction to see below the water, only to find a blur of what his legs were supposed to be, kicking to keep him up. I brushed it off my shoulder, and blamed the hand-holding on Clyde trying to keep himself above the water. I relaxed my back again and laid in the position I was before. Except this time, I felt a smile melt into my lips from the dandelion sun rays, and sighed to cool it dry. It stuck. ….For a few minutes.

If you’ve caught on to the other times I’ve smiled throughout that day, you can understand why in less than a short amount of time it managed to get wiped away again.

Clyde had let go of my hand after a few ( too short ) minutes, probably because he realized we were in public and he didn’t want to seem too gay, or his hand started to sweat, or whatever strange reason, but I didn’t let it ruin my relaxation. My fingers went immediately back to dancing on their tips on the water like river bugs. Until a few moments later, I couldn’t feel the warmth of Clyde radiating off of his body and reflecting on the tube anymore, and before I could look for him, Clyde’s head popped up from the center of tube, mind you, the tube I was then CURRENTLY SITTING IN, right in between my legs. He kept his arms straight underwater, and shook his hair like the dog he was once more. He looked up and flashed a grin that I couldn’t make out to be terrifying or gleeful.

I shouted once again and was *this close* to shitting myself right then and there. On reflex, I squeezed my thighs together in a half-ass way of curling up into a ball, crushing Clyde’s head in the process. He yelped himself, and when I finally opened my eyes, I looked down with a squiggly line where my mouth should’ve been, and Clyde looked at me with emerald eyes almost as wide as mine were, and nervous looking eyebrows. His mouth was a straight line, but his cheeks, peppered with freckles, were being squashed.

In the hopes that he would just leave and forget about it ever happening, I stopped flexing my thighs and allowed him some air to breathe. I couldn’t turn my head in any direction to hide my crimson cheeks completely, so I defended myself by showing my anger some more. It felt like that was the only thing I could’ve done to help myself.

“What the FUCK are you DOING?” I spit, and a few heads of mothers turned to look at me, they couldn’t see Clyde’s chin resting on my crotch, and rather confused, they went back to watching their kids or playing in the small waves with their babies. Clyde lowered his eyelids and hummed. His cheeks went a bit pink as well, but it was hard to see at first. I had noticed he had gotten considerably tanner throughout the day.

“Hmm. Just popping in,” he joked. Although, the tone of his voice made my heart canter, I pushed my palm onto his forehead to try and force him through the raft and away from the middle of my upper legs.

“Can you LEAVE?” I snapped at him, curling my fingers into fists. He rolled his tongue in his cheek, and clicked in his mouth, taking a close look at every inch of my upper and center body. He circled his shoulder and squeezed and arm in between mine and his torso, then pointed one of his dumb football fingers at me.

“THAT was rude. Come on, it’s just a friendly visit, hehe,” he giggled. He started to slip out from the center of the tube, but continued to try and kick his legs harder under the water to keep himself surfaced. There was nothing I could do to push him out, so I could only sit there and wait for him to tire himself out. I turned my head to the side and squeezed my eyes shut in embarrassment. I couldn’t tell where he was looking at me. The thought made my face even hotter. I prayed to let it blow over with, until Clyde struggled to hold himself up enough to use his free hand to grip the inside of my thigh, very high up the ruler of my leg. My breath hitched, his cold fingers sent a shock through my body and I could only wish for a miracle, a miracle that would be the prevention of a fucking hard on then and there. Clyde was growing tired, and I could feel his warm breath being wisped right where his mouth was facing, whoopdie fucking doo, my goddamn richard. He held himself a bit higher up, allowing my poor steamin’ semen truck to fucking rest, but what do you know, Clyde didn’t know when to stop, just like he had always.

“Hahaha, oh my gosh, you’ve got a cute little freckle there,” Clyde laughed, poking my other thigh with his nose. Fucking hell, his face was so close to my crotch. I furrowed my eyebrows and let go of one of the handles, full out slapping his cheek. I didn’t want to, but I knew that whatever Clyde was doing, he was doing on purpose and I didn’t want to deal with even more embarrassment than I had had earlier in the morning. But Clyde only let his cheek turn red with a handprint, and looked back at me. I had seen a variety of smirks and smiles and grins from Clyde, but this new one, this...almost _spicy_ one, wasn’t one I had seen before at all in my lifetime. He let his eyes relax, but raised his eyebrows, licked his canine teeth, and proceeded to kiss the spot where the pale little freckle sat on my skin. If steam didn’t start forming from the water surrounding us, I’d be surprised. The second his lips, soft from the water, made contact with my skin, I accidently managed to squeeze a helpless whimper out and inside my throat. It was small, but loud enough to be heard by the last person I would’ve wanted to hear it.

My eyes bulged and my vision centered away from Clyde’s face, but I couldn’t help myself from trying to see if he had heard the noise. My legs were numb, and I didn’t even feel him remove his hand, so when I looked down with a red face and a sweating neck, Clyde was looking up at me, trying to hold in a snort from behind the his palm, which was covering his lips. I couldn’t think of what to do, I was stuck, and all I could do then was accept my fate. All the air I had been holding in my lungs was released in a long, embarrassing whine that evolved into a groan. Clyde laughed at me again, and squeezed his other arm out from under the water. With both of his arms free, he positioned himself away from the middle of my legs and leaned backward on the opposite side of the tube as where I was, cradling the back of his head in his hands. The only thing was, instead of his _head_ being near my crotch, his legs floated upward, and his _hips_ pushed upward and into my _ass._

 _“_ Dude, woah, _woah,_ you need to cool down, hot stuff. Come on in, the water’s nice and chill,” he snickered.

I wouldn’t have it any longer, and I couldn’t think of anything else to do to stop him. If I shoved him, my ass would only be humped more. This was the final straw, however. I had to save myself from popping a Lick-A-Stik right before his eyes. The suicide assignment had been started on the timer.

I gripped a hold of both handles, and used all of my strength to flip the tube over with Clyde’s and my own weight inside of it.

Clyde gasped in an attempt to take a deep breath, but before he closed his mouth our enclosed, tiny hot tub was turned over. The water surrounded by entire body and poked my skin as soon as I hit the water myself, puffing my cheeks with a breath of air inside of them. I was closer to the ground than I thought I was, because when I swam in the direction of the shallow end my feet hit the concrete pretty quickly. I surfaced and spluttered to start breathing again, picking strands of hair out of my eyes before I opened them. After my breathing slowed, I could hear his laughter all over again.

I whipped my head around to Clyde, who was laughing so hard that he was snorting like a dork and holding himself up by the handle of the raft, now floating upside down. There were a few coughs prying themselves into Clyde’s laughter, his cheeks were pink looking from afar, and he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. I glared at him when he had the strength to look up and make eye contact with me, but he only laughed, a little softer that time, and approached me, dragging the tube behind him. It was no use running away, but I couldn’t bring myself to even move a muscle out of fear of what he’d do next. My face was too red for anything more. I would’ve exploded if I didn’t do something.  He let go of the tube as soon as he reached me, but instead of doing something nasty like I had expected him to, he took both of his arms, and wrapped them around me, pulling me into his bare chest, closer than before, in the morning. I formed a stick with my body and held my arms at my side, trying not to move.

“S-sorry! I couldn’t NOT tease you,” he comforted, chuckling in his words. His soothing tenor was better sounding when it didn’t sound shrill and echoey inside the tube. My shoulders relaxed. I didn’t try to hug him back, however. My arms were pinned to my side, and with the angle of the hill underwater, if I had tried, I would’ve only made things worse and would’ve ended up grabbing his ass. Besides, I felt warm, and a good kind of warm, different from what he had done to me a few seconds before. I had questions floating through my mind though, just as I had had the whole beginning of the day.

“But.., why would you want to tease me? That wasn’t like you. Fucking, like, at all,” I commented. Clyde’s hold loosened after I had finished speaking, and he let go, leaving only his hands rested on my shoulders. He looked me in the eye, and I could see he wanted to say something. I couldn’t recognize what he emotions were, but I caught a glimpse of nerve, or fear in his expression, and I raised my eyebrows. Clyde stood and stared, looking away and rubbing his neck again, letting out a mixture of the words, “Um,” and “I don’t.. really know,” timidly. I kept my eyes locked on him, making sure my daydreams weren’t showing. Fantasies of what he wanted to say to me flooded my head, but I kept my face straight, expecting an answer from him. His eyes sunk when he knew what I wanted, a reply, and he whistled softly to show slight distress, swinging his arms back and forth at his sides. I thought I saw a new shade of pink layer onto his cheeks and ears every time he gulped in preparation to speak.

“I-I.. uh.. well dude I kinda….,” he paused, turning his head and squeezing his eyes shut. He brought a finger to his mouth like he was thinking of what to say. He opened his mouth and bit the side of his pinkie. “I g-guess I might.. lik-”

“Aye! Craig, Clyde! We’re heading to the funnel slide!” shouted Token, interrupting Clyde’s sentence. Clyde turned around and looked like he had witnessed a Jesus miracle when Token appeared again over by the colorful umbrellas, and he let go of all the air what was building up in his lungs. He turned to face me.

“Hahaha! O-oh well guess we’ve got to follow Token because we don’t have a map! Okay let’s go then,” he stuttered, grabbing the tube, and then power-walked further and further shallow until he had caught up with Token, not looking back at me once.  I narrowed my eyes on him and watched how his arms were almost glued to his torso and his head was pointed down at the direction of his feet. What was wrong with him? It would’ve blown over my head soon after, but as I walked out of the water and up to the group I saw Clyde frantically speaking to Token. Clyde was speaking with his actions, and covering his face with his hands, and although I couldn’t hear their voices, I could see that Token was laughing. Clyde curled his hands into fists and put them to his hips in defensive stance and I could tell he was shouting, or over-reacting. Either works for someone like Clyde, I’ll be honest. I didn’t know what he was telling Token though. Clyde is really fucking stupid sometimes but he’d be smart enough to not tell _Token_ about the entire incident with the raft ( while Token probably saw everything anyway, he has eyes on the back of his head just like a real mom, ). I wished I knew what he was telling Token. Because with the way Clyde was acting a few seconds before, it was obvious he didn’t want to tell something to me. What made Token any different?

Token ruffled Clyde’s hair with his hand and smoothed Clyde’s shoulders down like feathers. He was being sympathetic, and he pointed at Clyde’s chest. I longed to be able to hear what Token was telling Clyde. Token poked the center of Clyde’s chest, still speaking, and Clyde nodded, hesitantly. It wasn’t enough information for me. I didn’t know what to ask. I didn’t want to ask. I told myself that maybe Clyde didn’t actually trust me like he always said he did. Like usual, I brushed it off my shoulder, but I was only pretending not to care by the time I reconnected with the group, we pushed the two rafts back over to the guy behind the desk, and made our way to the bottom of the staircase of the largest ride in the park. I trailed behind the other three, and with the idea of losing Clyde on my mind, heights didn’t scare me near as much.

The wood of the steps was worn down and faded, and I feared that if I used the the railing when walking up the steps I’d get splinters. It was the most popular and newest ride in the park, however, so the wood faded quickly as everyone wanted their turn. The line was extremely long too, the popularity had not died down over the winter. I stood in line next to Tweek and behind Clyde and Token, and I had felt that history repeated itself. Except in the morning on the first slide, I took part in making things awkward, and that time it was all Clyde. He couldn’t even look me in the eye after the wave pool, and I knew it was all because he had something to hide. He wasn’t mad at me, I could tell, because he wasn’t really speaking to Token on the way up the steps either. The four of us stood silently again, inching up to the top, surrounded by other visitors just as we did after the mile-long slide. We we’re going to leave soon, I had realized, and my heart sank. It had taken all morning for the four of us to recover from the first ride and feel comfortable again, but now it was just Clyde and I, sitting in our own glass ball of tension, and I was scared we would be at our own homes before we could actually speak to each other again. I did exactly what I didn’t want to do, and that was ruin part of everyone’s day with my own feelings. But then, the thought hit me, it wasn’t my fault that time?

Clyde had done all the teasing and the hand-holding and even bought a goddamn ice cream cone for me that day, what had I done to ruin it? All my nerves were bullshit, and if I did do something to create this tension, it was probably caused by all of Clyde’s fucking playing. I told myself that Clyde didn’t know the difference between love and friendship, and when he acts like he’s my boyfriend all day but then makes it very obvious he doesn’t even want to trust me just proves how much of an asshole he was being. What a piece of shit. I betted that Clyde didn’t have any self-respect.   _Being sweet, my ass. All he did was play with my emotions._

“C-Craig, you alright?”

I turned my head to a different pair of leafy colored eyes, and Tweek was giving me concerned looks. His eyes darted up and down my body, and I followed, realizing that I was gripping the railing so tight that my arm was shaking. I released my hand and started scratching my other arm.

“Yeah, spectacular.” Tweek gave me a small frown, then turned back to look off into the parking lot far away below us.

I stared down at my feet. I felt shot down. My brain said that everything Token had told me was nonsense. I tilted my head up so I could view the back of Token’s head, I couldn’t tell where he was looking. The four of us were surrounded by people, but silence struck me harder than anything. I was outcasted. What did Token know, I hadn’t done anything to tell Clyde how I felt and the day was ruined, what kind of possible damage could romantic feelings do?

I took the risk of scanning my full surroundings to see how high up we we’re, but my eyes collided with someone else’s line of sight. Clyde had his head turned and was looking over his shoulder discreetly, and when I looked at him, he didn’t immediately flinch and turn away, but more so kept his eyes locked with mine, and turned around like he didn’t want to stop staring. I couldn’t see his mouth with his shoulder in the way, but I envisioned a mean smirk, because he was acting like he did nothing wrong. That is what I felt, spur of the moment. His eyes looked glassy then, as if they were made of cooked ceramic. With fake feeling, artificial shine. Although, I couldn’t bring myself to scowl at him.

The “funnel”, as Token described, was the largest ride to ever be built at the park as of then, and the more I watched it tower over me, the more I started to feel sick to my stomach. The ride starts off with a swervy, pitch black tube for you and your raft-mates to scream just a little bit, until they realize that what they were doing just then isn’t even close to worthy of screaming your lungs out, as the next bit involves a 40 foot drop at 90 degrees, and if you’re extremely lucky you aren’t the one traveling down backward. The highlight of the ride, is the enormous, soul-sucking, colorfully striped funnel that catches you from the drop, and you swing back and forth, or side to side,  depending on whatever direction you’re facing in the raft. The bulky yellow raft, capable of holding 4 people, spins around while you slide in a boomerang motion, going through the funnel, and getting faster as the ride keeps splashing and soaking you. The ride is different every time you experience it, and if you have a terrible fear of the unknown, you’re bound to go into cardiac arrest, just as I predicted I would do the moment a different lifeguard pushed us down. The spark of electricity that shot through my veins after Token asked the first lifeguard to spin our raft returned, and reminded me to prevent anything like that from happening again. I looked over at Clyde, who was mimicking what I had been doing before, holding his arms and looking down at his feet, and proceeded to tap Token’s shoulder, making him turn his body.

“Uh, Token. Could you like… not spin the raft this time,” I asked, almost whispering. Token turned his body around completely, and put his hands on his hips. He cocked an eyebrow, and made himself look confused.

“I’m not one to control that, why would I ask if I’m not going on?” he questioned. My mouth kept stayed open a crack, and I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes.

“Then why are you coming up the steps…?” I replied. Token rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I’m not going on with _you_ . Aren’t you and Clyde going alone?” I felt a chill go down my spine. _Why would I go on with him? Because he acts like my boyfriend now?_

“N-not from what I’ve been told,” I said, trying to sound dead-tone. It would’ve shown my annoyance to him if I had managed to get it out. I couldn’t, despite my efforts at trying though. It frustrated me that I didn’t know why.

“He didn’t ask you?” Token asked, and I saw Clyde shiver from the corner of my eye. Token scaled his line of sight and turned to face him.

“Clyde, you told me you were going on with Craig a couple minutes ago,” he said to him, and Clyde kept his eyes locked on Token’s face. They looked like they were filled with fear. Clyde would’ve objected already if what Token said was the truth, instead, he muttered under his breath, “Y-yeah.. sorry.”

Clyde didn’t have his back turned to me anymore, and although I felt angry my stomach still fumbled when I got a good look at his face again. He wasn’t smiling like usual, and what I was witnessing, his fear, was a rare sight to see. Clyde liked to cover himself with a tarp that read “Confidence” and “Witty” and “Popularity” as of late junior-high, and although he really pulled it off or actually believed it sometimes, I could see through it easily. But it was strange to see raw feelings. Clyde had always been an emotional bastard, nothing had changed since elementary, but he didn’t show it as often anymore. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him rubbing his arm and shaking, relying on someone to help him speak.

Token nudged him in the arm with his own elbow and Clyde flinched, and made eye-contact with me. The tips of his ears tinted themselves pink like blossoming flowers, and the eye-contact didn’t stay for long. Clyde’s pear irises didn’t face me when he did, but he took a deep breath and stuttered out a jumble of words.

“S-s-so did you, uh, want to g-go with me…. j-justcauseTokenandTweekwantedtogofaster,” he barfed. His eyes trailed over to Token, who was looking back at him. Token raised his eyebrows, and everyone moved a few steps closer to the front of the line.

“N-not just because of that I just... wanted to go one round a..a-alone..with you,” he stuttered, signalling his palms up and waving them in front of his chest. He had his eyes squeezed shut, and faced me when he spoke. My mind couldn’t think correctly; Clyde had the same anxiety as he did when he ran off out of the wave pool, and it phased me that it still lingered as he spoke to me. Maybe he wanted to apologize? My stomach clenched, and a little bit of my annoyance at him disappeared. Clyde still turned away and had his shoulders tense like he was preparing for me to yell, and Token looked at me with the same calm face he normally had. Maybe I was slowly starting to forgive Clyde, maybe I didn’t want Tweek’s exorcism-worthy screeching to cause me to go deaf in one ear, but I turned directly to Clyde.

“Uh, yeah. Sure,” I answered. Clyde’s eyes burst open, and a whole new shade of red bursted in his cheeks, like someone popped a bunch of red paint tubes under his skin. We moved up a step. Clyde turned the opposite way he was facing before and his eyes bulged at Token. His mouth formed into a straight line and his body started to shake. Clyde nodded and folded his arms, turning around, where I could see his entire back was littered with tiny freckles and the back of his neck was pink. He started to tap his foot bouncily, and Token gave me a little smile.

“Okay then, Tweek you’re going with me then.”

“A-ALONE? Token I sweAR TO GOD IF YOU T-TELL THAT LIFEGUARD TO SPIN THE RAFT I-I’LL-” Tweek shouted, making the few heads in front of us turn backward in curiosity, and Token laughed at all the attention. A few more steps up, and we were waiting at the top of the deck with a few other groups of people that could fit in the area.

I leaned to the right to look over the railing, and my heart sunk. The cars down below looked like toy matchbox cars, and I could see houses in the distance, we we’re at such a high altitude. I couldn’t breathe correctly, and when Token took his turn to tap me on the shoulder, I flinched.

“Did you want to switch places so the lifeguard knows it’s you and Clyde going together?” he offered, pointing his thumb back behind his shoulder where he was standing before. My eyes darted from the spot to his face, then nodded, lightly pushing him out of the way, and making my way to Clyde’s side.

Clyde turned his head to see who I was, and surprisingly, when he saw me, he didn’t jolt like I had expected him to, but he formed a half-smile at me, but he still couldn’t look me in the eye for long. When he turned back, his leg started to bounce again. We moved closer to the front of the line.

“Scared again?” I asked. I thought to myself that maybe Clyde wasn’t _intentionally_ trying to be an ass, and if that was the case the best thing I could do was act casual with him. I was more annoyed with his jumpiness then than what he had been doing to be all day.

Clyde turned to me and gradually stopped shaking his leg, and before laughing softly and nodding, eyes shut and facing the ground.

“There’s no use helping it. We should’ve gone on this one first,” he admitted. “Just to settle the nerves…. well, actually it’d only make the line shorter.” I didn’t know how long we had stood waiting to get on the ride. We started at the bottom late afternoon, and by the time we we’re standing there then, our bodies and hair had air-dried and the sky was starting to turn different colors as the sun started to set. We moved up one more step, and the group in front of us started to settle into their big yellow raft.

“I’m sure it’ll be worth it. These assholes wouldn’t be waiting in line for a lame ride,” I commented. Clyde looked at me with sincerity for the first time in almost an hour, and scrunched his nose, smirking

“I bet it _is_ lame if you’ll end up liking it. You’re the boring one,” he snickered. His cheeks were still pink, not as much as before, but I still found myself biting the inside of my cheek to stop myself from smiling, and I shoved him once more that day. He let out a laugh, but stopped when he saw the lifeguard pull our own raft off the belt and into the water. We looked at each other, and stepped into the water.

The lifeguard wasn’t as sassy or as dreamy as our previously remembered one, he spoke in a low-tone and you could assume he had had a long day from the forming bags under his eyes. He informed us to sit across from each other and to hold onto the handles at all times, “blah blah mutter blarugh.” That was what I got out of his boring voice. And Clyde had the right to call me boing. I was terrified as it was, though, only my legs were wet and I had a feeling that my entire body was about to be soaked in under 30 seconds. I glanced at Clyde, and did my best to give him a reassuring smile, and he turned his head embarrassingly, biting his lip and covering his mouth with his hand again. When he had our hands on the handles and our feet sprawled in the middle, I looked up at Token, and all he did was wave me down, grinning. And as the lifeguard pushed the back of the raft, I caught a glimpse of him winking at me, before Clyde and I fell into the dark cavern that was the beginning of the slide.

It was nice to hear Clyde’s voice again, better yet laughing, but the way it sounded when it erupted in my ears and echoed with the hellish sounds of water spraying and hitting my face, I would’ve rather listened to my own screaming than his. And that’s what happened.

He wasn’t right next to me to hold onto anymore, but just as I got used to the spinning and the darkness without someone there to hold me, despite not being allowed to let go of the raft, light started to show itself on the walls of the tube, and my fate of going down backwards or having to look down 40 feet was about to be decided. The raft hit a bump in the slide, and we spun faster, leaving the decision to however the raft decided to fall. I shut my eyes, not wanting to know, but the tilt of the raft as we hit the 90 degree drop had me open them on reflex, and I felt my body float up from the raft as I looked down on Clyde taking the sacrifice of falling with his back to the ground, screaming with his eyes shut like I had wished I was. The drop was the worst, it was when the adrenaline pumped through your blood the quickest. Your stomach dropped, your head spun, and the feeling could’ve been completely different if you were on the bottom.

We swerved into the funnel and collided with it with a large splash, soaking our lower bodies, and all our nerves were relieved at that point, and they were escaping our bodies through howling hyena laughter and the shouting of each other’s names. The raft slid from side to side, we had water getting thrown in our faces and all over our chests and arms, destroying the effects of our air-dry from walking up the steps. My knuckles were white from squeezing the handles, but I was smiling so big that my face started to hurt, and that’s huge for a dick like me to admit.

The raft started to speed up as we made shorter spinning and swerving motions, and we passed through the smallest end of the funnel at the end pool below, drenched and laughing like the way up never happened. I didn’t wish it never happened, though, and I still don’t. I’ll be honest, I think it’s funny how unrealistic and self-centered my thoughts were going up those steps while Clyde was too afraid to talk to me.

It’s pointless to wish something had never happened. Clyde did the moron thing to do in the wave pool and embarrassed the shit out of me, but I’d never let it define who he was. He’s an idiot, but I’d rather appreciate some of the other things that happened with him, the good things. I couldn’t wish I had never met him, right? He had done more good than bad for me in all the years I knew him, and I couldn’t ever wish I had never met Clyde Donovan. And I couldn’t ever wish that I _didn’t_ accept the invite from my friends to go swimming at a waterpark with them, despite having to deal with the person I liked shirtless and expecting him to flirt with women all day, because as soon as the lifeguard at the bottom pulled out raft aside and told us to exit feet first, my toes touched the concrete under the water and Clyde grabbed my shoulders, turning me to face him, and pressing my lips against his.

( Dear GOD still, don’t EVER take your crush to go swimming because you end up writing corny shit like THAT. I’m telling you, prevent it, you fucking morons! Look what it’s done to me! )

I hadn’t even had the chance to smooth the hair out from my eyes, and I stiffened up, fingers bending like rusty cranks. I couldn’t move my eyes or my legs, and I was still processing what was happening after Clyde pulled away. My jaw opened, my mouth gaping until I could find words. Clyde held a loose fist to his mouth, holding in what I predicted to be very loud laughter.

He snickered in between words, and he forced out, “Your face is so red,!” under his breath. Although, he was just as filled with color as I was. His eyes were shut tight when I raised a finger, wanting to say something reasonable. Unfortunately, my vocabulary and sentence skills weren’t working well.

I made some strange whine and confused sounding noises before I managed to squeeze out a single word.

“whAT??” I shouted, and Clyde couldn’t hold in his laughing anymore. It wasn’t mean, “I’m making fun of you” laughter, but rather complementary laughter. Sweet, indescribable laughter that made me melt more than I already had when he pulled my face in to kiss it.  

The lifeguard at the bottom had been waiting for us to exit the pool, and had absolutely no patience or care about our “moment.” He proceeded to yell and scold at us for not immediately exiting the pool like we were supposed to, but throughout his anger session Clyde was still laughing softly while I kept trying to wipe the grin off my face, and we exited the pool and began walking down the path, back to the entrance of the ride.

“No no no no, what the hell, I don’t understand,” I rambled as we walked, wet feet splatting the concrete and legs starting to shiver.

“What do you mean? You.. wanted that, right?” he giggled, bumping my shoulder with his. I looked down at my palms and bent my fingers, mimicking the motion of grabbing something. I raised one eyebrow, looking down.

“I mean, yeah, y-you could say that but why the hell did you do that? Did you know? H-have you known all day?? Are you like, bi or something or are you just fucking with me?” I stuttered, looking him in the eye once again.

“I’m fucking with you,” he replied.  My heart sunk as did my shoulders. I think my emotions could be seen through my face for once too, because after a few seconds of silence, Clyde snorted again.

“I’m _kidding,_ ” he laughed. I furrowed my eyebrows. I had had enough of trying to prevent my mood swings by the end of that day.

“Then what the fuck are you looking for Clyde?? Are you serious??” I yelled, throwing my hands in every direction. Clyde chuckled behind his teeth nibbling his lips. Then he looked down and started fiddling his thumbs.

“I-if you’re asking if I’m into you.. I-I-I guess so, y-yeah,” he replied, puckering his lips a bit.

“You _guess so?_ Give me an answer ya’ loser,” I joked. I only wanted to hear him say it again.

“YEAH I LIKE YOU OKAY? JEEZ,” he shouted, and it was my turn to laugh. Clyde turned his head and hid his face behind one of his hands. I laughed at his cute actions and pulled his hand away. His eyes looked just as glassy as they did before, but I recognized what was in them. It was embarrassment. Maybe he was smiling behind his shoulder as we headed up the staircase. Either way, his dashing green eyes still looked as pretty and as big a ceramic plates as he looked at me. He smiled again.  My will to hold and be held multiples by 100.

“Well, that was pretty obvious today. I lost count of the number of times you went to hold my hand,” I teased, and he yanked his wrist from out of my grasp and covered his entire face with both of his hands that time, muffling his release of a short groan. He made gaps in his fingers to look at me again.

“Ugghh, it’s like I can’t be smooooth now that you know,” he whined, then he pointed his eyes away from me. “A-and.. the hand-holding.. that was like.. it.” I could hear his voice crack the slightest, and he knew that was a lie. His fingers closed again, waiting for me to tell him what he already knew.

“Oh that’s a fucking huge lie and you know it.” Clyde whined, shifting his hands to cover his mouth more. I cocked an eyebrow and turned my waist to face him as we were walking. “What was the deal with the ice cream, and the inner tube, huh?” I laughed at him, and he removed one hand to reveal his eyes to me.

“A-at least I tried!” It was easily to be told that Clyde was trying to make himself look tough to hide his absolute embarrassment, but the single hand covering his mouth couldn’t hide the same grin I had on my face. He didn’t actually care. He would’ve messed with me more if he could. And yeah, he did try.

“You didn’t even m-make a move. You’ll have to make up for all the stuff I did for you after I ask you to be my boyfriend.” Yeah, it sort of worked.

My heart stumbled a bit, but I wanted to stay the strongest as long as I could, no matter how much my cheeks burned. There was no helping getting rid of the smile on my face, but I spoke to him, without stuttering.

“What makes you think I’ll say yes?” I questioned, in a lower, more soothing voice that made Clyde’s face go crimson. Clyde removed his other hand from his face and turned back to face me.

“Because what if I asked to kiss you again, right now. You’d say yes, right?” he spoke, for the first time to me, lovingly. He took the hand that was removed from his face and lifted my chin with his finger. That was the kind of romance I had secretly hoped for.

“Yes,” I answered, and he lightly pinched my chin with the rest of his fingers, and pulled me into a kiss once again.

Remember how I mentioned every time I had smiled that day, it would wipe from my face in a matter of minutes? That didn’t change.

“oh mY GOD!!” “Haha, woah, it actually worked.”

The both of us were too distracted to notice more “splat, splat splats,” of wet feet on concrete, and the sounds of the other half of our friend group’s voices made Clyde and I jump away from each other, yelping and trying helplessly to act like nothing had happened. I rubbed my arm and stared at the ground while Clyde stood with his back towards me, brushing his swim trunks off with his hands, awkwardly. Token stood there laughing proudly, and I realized why he had winked at me at the top of the steps. That bastard was too lucky to have predicted what would happen at the end of the ride. He really was a mom. He knew all along, and I was oblivious to it.

“We’ve got to start heading home, it’ll be dark soon as will the park be closing,” he said. “The towels are in the bag over where we set up. No whipping each other’s asses with them.” I cleared my throat at Token’s weird comment, but closed my eyes in satisfaction.

“He’s talking to you, Clyde.”

“DDFGgjhgdjaGDG!!!”

* * *

 

On our ride home, Token drove just as he did on the way here, but instead of sitting shotgun I, for some reason, lost a bit of my dignity and totally just fucking went to the way back with Clyde. We didn’t do anything nasty, we all were too exhausted. That was the thing about water parks, they’re full of thrills and excitement and you never seem to want to go until you’re in the car and you’re falling asleep right on the spot. Especially that day, I had had my heart speed up and stop working multiple times thanks to the big dog I was resting my head on. Using Clyde as a pillow, I fell asleep almost instantly. Sleepy and still a bit giggly from the final climax of the day when Clyde was being cute and covering his face, my need for affection was still high, and when I’m half-asleep I’m more willing to admit it than I am when I’m fully awake and 100% asscrack.

When I first leaned over to shut my eyes and dream on Clyde’s shoulder, he jumped and went a bit tense, but calmed himself down, and even raised his arm to run his stupid fingers through my damp hair affectionately. After a few minutes of not being able to sleep through his comfort, however, I pulled his arm down with furrowed eyebrows and hugged it till my breathing slowed. Clyde chuckled softly and let me hold a part of him, before my conscience fell, and I was asleep.

* * *

 

“You’re welcome,” Token said.

“....Yeah yeah,” he said back.

“You better thank Tweek too, it took a lot to drag him along and make it realistic.”

“Yeah! You got that right, I didn’t do this for n-nothing.”

There was a pause.

“Didn’t I tell you it’d work out?” Token asked, looking in the mirror on the windshield.

“.....I was lucky. Extremely lucky.”

Token laughed.

“Even a jerk like Craig could fall for his best friend if they tried as much as you did, Clyde.”

Clyde looked down at the sleeping Craig at his side and all he could do was smile.

“Did you know this whole time? Is that why you told me if he said yes, he was interested?” Clyde asked.

“Clyde, I told you if Craig said yes to going down the slide with you after what you did in the wave pool was the only realistic way to build your confidence. Of course I knew how Craig felt, but you wouldn’t have believed it unless you saw it, yeah?”

“But how did you know he would say yes after I embarrassed him?”

“I didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t. And if I did, I wouldn’t have expected you to kiss him then and there. You backed out every other time you hit on him today,” Token joked. Clyde furrowed his eyebrows.

“L-like when?” Clyde muttered.

“I don’t know, the ice cream. I can’t believe you bought his favorite flavor for him, you’re so cheesy it’s unbearable. Sharing the ice cream was the closest you got to kissing him.”

“H-how’d you know about that??”

“Clyde, you wouldn’t buy a vanilla cone if your life depended on it. Also, we saw when we were walking up. You seem to forget that you’re in public when you’re flirting with him.

“I-I wasn’t flirting with him!! I just.. I wanted to impress him.”

“Glad to see your full-day mission to impress Craig went well, hm?”

“It… it wasn’t _all_ day. You were trying to get us together.”

“Because you were failing miserably.”

“He said I had tried hard, it was nice doing that for him.” Clyde unslipped his arm from craig’s grasp and let his head lay in his lap. Clyde ran his fingers up and down Craig’s back while Craig slept. “His smile is the greatest.”

“Y-y-you’re so corny oh m-my god-” Tweek groaned. Both Clyde and Token laughed.

“Just remember that when you’re feeling proud of yourself and glad that you kissed him first, remember it was all me. All me. Clyde you thought you were smooth before but you were so obvious I am seriously surprised Craig didn’t pick up on you.”

“Ughhhh, w-whatever dude. At least he knows.”

And Craig did know. Although half-asleep and later in his bed, Craig Tucker curled into his ball of pillows, where he was sure no one would see him, and the only thing that played in his head for the rest of the time he was awake, was, “At least he knows. At least he knows.” What could’ve been better than the least?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for sitting through this enormous thing!!!! idk what i'm going to do for my next project after this thing this is probably the greatest achievement i've made in my life so far what can i do to top this? graduate highschool? college?


End file.
